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Mid-Year Governance Progress

Dear Congregation,

We are now mid-way through the church year trying out our new governance approach, and would like to provide an update. You may remember at our last congregational meeting in June of 2017, we voted affirmatively to slightly adjust our bylaws and move forward with procedural and structural changes targeted at further empowering and energizing our mission together.

The Governance Committee interviewed Board members and Rev. Gretchen in December of 2017. Together, we checked in on the progress of transitioning into the new governance roles and assessed where things were either working well or needed additional improvement.

Generally, all parties are making very good progress toward filling their respective roles and increasing focus of talent and resources to appropriate tasks. Both the Board and the minister report strong collaboration in decision-making and discussions. Rev. Gretchen is providing excellent monthly progress reports to the Board to enable monitoring and oversight. Both the Board and Gretchen are referencing the policy book, appreciative of where sufficient guidance was provided and highlighting items that require more clarity. The greatest challenge our leaders face in making this transition is completing Board adjustments to truly focus on their role in setting vision and mission, and achieving the desired level of congregational engagement in that process. This is expected in this first year of effort, and we expect it to continue for some time.

In the spring, a deeper assessment of the effectiveness of the governance approach will be conducted, collecting input more broadly from staff, volunteers, and members.

The full report of the mid-year progress is located in our Governance Documents area of the website. View it here. We will also be providing an update at the Congregational Forum on January 21st.